Posted on 09/12/2007 7:49:38 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(LONDON) - Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.
In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming.
"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study.
"If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.
Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide.
"That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors.
The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day.
With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago.
Powles said that if the global average were 90 grams per day, that would prevent the levels of gases from speeding up climate change.
Eating less red meat would also improve health in general. Powles and his co-authors estimate that reducing meat consumption would reduce the numbers of people with heart disease and cancer. One study has estimated that the risk of colorectal cancer drops by about a third for every 100 grams of red meat that is cut out of your diet.
"As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."
Experts said that it would probably take decades to wane the public off of its meat-eating tendency. "We need to better understand the implications of our diet," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of director of the World Health Organization's department of public health and the environment.
"It is an interesting theory that needs to be further examined," she said. "But eating less meat could definitely be one way to reduce gas emissions and climate change."
How many equivalent cow farts does Sasquatch Gore’s GIII Gulfstream jet spew into the atmosphere on a monthly basis. Not to mention that stretch limo flatulence.
There are many ways to reduce global warming; that is, if you believe GW is caused by human. Some examples: stop any physical development of housing, impose one-child policy in every country, require people to ride a bike, put 200% tax on any kind of car, truck, etc. Hmmm... I just realized that some of them actually have been done...
And after that, it will ba another 10%. Elimination of overpopulation is a stated goal.
It must have been a furnace before the evil white man killed the carpet of bison that used to cover North America
If we eat less meat, where will all the livestock go? Wouldn’t less eating = more livestock = more methane emission = more climate change?
Oy! Death spiral!
that is funny!
i hadn’t thought of that.
buffalo belching and farting on the great spirit’s
precious mother earth.
Give me a steak and a mess of baked bean.
Minkey, I don't see a minkey.
Chief Inspector, I assure you I didn't eat the minkey.
Let me eat more meat; God made it, it’s edible, it’s tasty, I’ll eat it!
What do I get out of it (even if ‘global warming’ were real)? This is a ‘distraction-indocrination’ issue: it’s manufactured just to give the ‘people’ something to worry about!
Will these idiots ever shut up. You would think the sight of Fat Al getting off of a jet to put his fat butt into an SUV would convince them it’s a scam.
Eating more plant life will cause you to die earlier. You are not getting the vitamin B’s you need.
PETA WHACKOS SEE AN OPENING TO ADVANCE THEIR AGENDA! Shocked. I'm shocked I tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get your point, no sarcasm tag necesary. Anybody with a brain who can think or read and not regurgitate MSM talking points knows what this is about....
Nobody gave a shit about liberal causes like trees and cows. So invent something like Global Warming that makes things a little more personal. Give up your SUV and Veal Parm or YOU will burn in a great ball of fire!
Exactly! Wouldn't the solution therefore be to KILL more animals so they don't mess up the precious atmosphere?
Flatulence? All I can say to that is pull my finger.:)
I love animals . . . they’re delicious!!
The idea that somebody, somewhere is enjoying a steak and cigarette haunts progressives. They must cringe when they pass a McDonalds or hear Sean Hannity advertising Ruths Chris steakhouse.
Eating more meat can also reduce the number of livestock. ;-)
Reducing their numbers? Planned cattlehood? Bovine contraception?
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